I spent most of my Bank Holiday Monday scraping the data to make that map, and then this morning found almost the same thing is on the charity Shelter's website here, apart from they're a bit presumptive, rather than labelling average rents they suppose that you need to earn about 2.5 times rent for it to be affordable. Which is where Eva Wiseman's figure of £67,669 to live in Tower Hamlets comes from. Its using a rule of thumb to come up with a very precise figure. How much of your income to spend on rent is a very personal choice, rather than something to be foised on you by a charity.

Anyhoo, I digress...

Of course the City of London has the most expensive average rents, how could it be otherwise, its the centre of the capital, and so, of course the boroughs neighbouring it are going to be less expensive but still amongst the most expensive in the country.

If you want to buy property and you're Eva Wiseman or one of her minimum wage call-centre friends then don't look at the most expensive places in London, look to the cheaper boroughs, the more affordable ones.

Its just a little small-minded to assume that all of the British Isles except the centre of london is uninhabitable.

Here's a table of rents culled from various searches on RightMove:-

Up to

£700

£800

£900

£1,000

£1,250

£1,500

£1,750

£2,000

£2,500

£3,000

£3,500

Total properties available

Average monthly rent

City of London

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

30

183

70

284

£2,817.34

Kensington and Chelsea

0

0

0

0

0

7

36

89

303

504

509

1448

£2,732.73

Westminster

0

0

0

0

0

5

80

175

526

471

644

1901

£2,649.53

Camden

0

0

0

0

1

44

187

185

342

213

132

1104

£2,261.44

Islington

0

0

0

0

13

57

158

165

236

183

70

882

£2,177.86

Hammersmith and Fulham

0

1

0

0

8

57

186

121

198

90

35

696

£2,045.98

Tower Hamlets

0

0

1

1

47

338

868

646

614

437

244

3196

£2,039.24

Richmond upon Thames

0

0

4

7

46

79

62

52

80

40

26

396

£1,876.70

Hackney

0

0

0

1

24

97

142

123

84

23

23

517

£1,836.94

Wandsworth

0

0

2

3

47

312

341

154

190

67

52

1168

£1,806.55

Southwark

0

0

0

3

106

167

223

144

130

62

26

861

£1,778.86

Hounslow

0

0

13

37

101

113

116

104

227

32

5

748

£1,756.28

Lambeth

0

0

1

10

98

211

208

108

105

64

21

826

£1,733.32

Ealing

0

2

3

15

96

298

160

69

75

14

7

739

£1,563.50

Merton

0

0

8

20

101

132

60

37

25

22

15

420

£1,555.48

Brent

0

2

2

7

82

118

148

30

10

3

0

402

£1,472.26

Haringey

0

0

2

14

150

106

99

25

23

4

2

425

£1,427.06

Barnet

0

0

5

35

245

296

132

37

19

19

7

795

£1,411.01

Newham

0

3

42

106

248

262

160

62

39

10

17

949

£1,395.84

Kingston upon Thames

0

0

0

15

113

111

34

9

7

4

6

299

£1,379.18

Greenwich

0

13

45

52

127

129

89

19

11

9

2

496

£1,318.35

Harrow

0

1

5

32

115

65

8

8

8

0

1

243

£1,248.56

Lewisham

0

2

32

62

159

95

24

18

2

4

0

398

£1,224.56

Enfield

0

2

13

60

301

66

6

0

0

0

0

448

£1,135.41

Bromley

2

4

44

75

132

68

9

1

0

0

0

335

£1,112.50

Waltham Forest

0

1

32

125

268

49

5

2

0

0

0

503

£1,092.00

Redbridge

0

0

23

51

53

9

0

0

0

0

0

136

£1,080.05

Sutton

0

0

23

51

53

9

0

0

0

0

0

136

£1,029.41

Croydon

0

3

92

164

129

21

2

1

2

0

0

414

£1,014.19

Barking and Dagenham

0

14

52

69

55

4

0

0

0

0

0

194

£967.14

Havering

1

16

68

52

44

11

0

0

1

0

0

193

£967.75

Bexley

1

29

58

19

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

115

£859.13

The table shows how many two bedroom properties there are to let at each price point in each London borough. For example, in Bexley there are 58 two bedroom properties to let at between £800 and £900 per month.

To use this table, first work out how much your household can afford to spend on rent each month, between a third and a half of your monthly income, then look at which boroughs have properties at that price point.

Easy peasy.

I get the impression that Eva Wiseman is a stroppy middle class snob frustrated that she can't afford to live in stylish and expensive Kensington and Chelsea, stamping her foot crying "But I don't want to live in Havering!".

What I don't quite understand though is how the number of properties available in each borough decreases as average rents decrease. For example, Tower Hamlets, one of the more expensive areas to live has over 3,000 properties available, and Sutton, one of the cheaper areas has only 136. Its like the opposite of supply and demand.

2 comments:

a bit late as reply but: the more expensive you expect to be able to let a property the more acceptable are longer times of vacancy. e.g. leaving a property vacant for 6 months to find a tenant who pays 3000£ pays off after 3 years in comparison to renting it for 2500£.